When I was a high school student there was a song on the charts that started with "Splish splash, I was takin' a bath on about a Saturday night, rubby dub dub I was sittin' in the tub, everything was alright..." and there is where I forget the rest of the song.

I recall that something happened and everything went wrong for the poor fellow. I cannot help but think how that is the story of our lives. One thing I have learned about life is that we may relax in the storm because it will pass in time and the good times are on their way. Then too, when a good thing is happening don't try to hold on to it because it too will pass into yesterday.

It is my opinion that one of life's merciless jokes is that we entertain in our minds during our younger years that, "One day we will get it leveled out and have the proverbial tiger by the tail." We console ourselves, during the years of hard work demanded of us, with this promise: "One day we will do exactly what we want to," and we do not realize that we walk on shifting sand from our birth to our death.

The general notion in our Nation seems to provide the fallacious idea that because the old people are old that there is nothing new to them. The truth is that the older population, just as does the younger, have many experiences that are totally new to them with regularity. Experiences they have never gone through before are there to either enjoy or to endure, and then to top it off they have to deal with the approaching certainty of death.

As younger persons we think we can ignore that certainty for today, because we all think we will be among those who die very old. That does seem to be the direction the statistics are projecting for us humans, but remember that the sand shifts. Death is the certain thing, life is the possibility.

You may ask yourself if this writer is depressed or simply a seriously negative person. But in light of the possible impending trouble for our Nation I don't feel like entertaining anyone, rather I feel impressed to ask of you what I must ask of myself, "Are you and those you love ready to die, should that be the thing that happens?"

I am in good company to ask this question because Jesus asked this question and advised and warned that this is the pivotal question for us all.

We don't want to think about the unscheduled certainty of death because at this time our live is either too comfortable or too confused to give it time for thought; but we must!

Do you, as do I also, have family members or friends, about whom we are not sure whether they possess salvation through Jesus?

One other evolution of our culture is that we have been indoctrinated to avoid the subject of salvation with those who are family, and with those who are not. Many of our Pulpits are silent on that subject; "evangelism" is a vulgar and embarrassing word to many Christians. Avoidance is not what Jesus told us to do. Silence had no part in His instructions to us. He said, "Go Tell."

I, like so many others, have fallen as a silenced victim at times to the politically correct culture which scorns the mention of personal "relationship with Jesus" in conversation, but has no problem with the evangelization of "pagan religious rites." If you think I over speak, you may want to investigate how Paganism presents itself in our Nation. Our culture is soaked with pagan practices and beliefs.

"Everyone to their own taste said the old woman, as she kissed the cow." That is the drum to which we feel we must walk because we erroneously think that if a person is "sincere" that a good God will let them into Heaven. The Bible says otherwise and does not permit us to form our own personal path to God. Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life AND no man comes to the Father except through Me."

There are those of us who know better than to be silent and yet we stumble and mumble and hesitate to ask the question to our family and friends.

So why is it important anyway? Here is why: in the case of those we love, if they are not true believers in Jesus, even if we are, one-hundred years from now we will not live in the same place. We will never see them again; and they will be in torment forever and wonder why we never told them about Jesus and salvation and made certain they understood.

I have my own family members of whom I must request an answer to the question, and I hardly know where to begin. I am certain we must begin with prayer, fervent prayer, and then not to put off the asking of life's most important question.

Reason at work: It looks like we, as a Nation may be into some seriously troubled waters and time may not permit us to take leisure in getting the question asked. It has always been what we should do, but we can't wait because the water appears to be getting turbulent.

Regardless of how the water splashes, we need Jesus and His salvation for living here and for dying as well, so that we may stand before God's Judgment Seat with the righteous blood of Jesus as our plea, and live in beauty and peace for ever thereafter.

However, whether trouble comes or doesn't, "It is appointed unto man once to die and after this, the Judgment." Death is the certainty. Life is the possibility. Are we ready?